Amazon’s big Alexa, Echo, Fire TV and Ring event: What we expect

We are all getting to know our Echo Smart Speaker better these days. In the existence of a life-at-home, millions of us hunker down for the long haul, home-related concepts that Amazon has been developing over the years have become more important than ever. This means home security from Amazon’s ring, Internet connectivity from Ero and smart home control via Alexa.

Amazon will work to meet the unique needs of today’s customers, keeping an eye on the future of an epidemic during its annual product launch event on Thursday. The event, which kicks off at 10 am PT, is invitation only, but the public can follow in real time by checking the journalists’ Twitter feeds, Amazon releases and of course Tips Clear.

This event is an important way for Amazon to generate excitement before the holiday season and – for the first time – Prime day. (Annual sales are usually held in July, but this year is expected to begin on October 13.) The company is likely to work at the address Secluded Concerns, which was a big story in 2019 for both Ring and Alexa.

Moving into the event, we’ve brought together our reviewers and reporters who have tracked Amazon‘s hardware work for years, which is to be expected.

– Fen Rubin

Echo

The Echo smart speaker usually gets top billing, so look for lots of new devices, features, and unexpected Alexa-powered gadgets, such as microwaves or Wall clock.

In 2019, Amazon made huge strides in filling its lineup of smart speakers and displays, offering the Echo Show 5 and Show 8, along with the newest Echo speakers, Echo Dot with Clock and Echo Studio higher-end speakers is. A year later, Amazon’s speakers and displays still feel quite up-to-date, with no obvious missing elements.

While the standard Echo speaker and small Echo Dot are unlikely to see the updated design (they’re both on their third generation), it wouldn’t be surprising to see Amazon adding polish to some of its other smart home products – much in the way it did last year. Clock was accompanied by Dot. That said, it may be a bit soon to see total rewimps, and perhaps the product line is a bit much, expecting a lot of new speakers or displays as we saw in 2019.

Hardware aside, Amazon is clearly focused on enhancing Alexa’s smart home strengths in 2020, making it more complex to connect smart home products with mobile devices, giving and voice capabilities and better Features are available. Alexa had already hit the road with her auto car accessory last year, and this week the increased attention on the Amazon sidewalk is part of Amazon’s long effort to bring Alexa from home to sidewalk, anywhere from home Strengthens.

See also Amazon for working on Alexa privacy. The voice assistant made a big attack on her reputation last year amid controversy over human reviews of customer recordings. Amazon made a major element of its presentation in 2019 to shore up consumer confidence and hopes to continue working on the issue.

– David priest

Fire tv

At a time when streaming is more popular than before, it’s a good bet Amazon will release updates to its most popular streaming devices, namely the $ 40 Fire TV Stick and the $ 50 Fire TV Stick 4K. They are solid choices, especially for Alexa fans, but it would be great to see the overhaul of confusing menus and search results that push Amazon’s own content too much. It’s hard to see how they can either improve the stick’s hardware – a remote finder feature or a faster processor would be nice, but the main goal is to keep these devices cheap to compete against Roku. To that end, the $ 10 price drop for both Fire TV sticks would also mean a fall, especially Google‘s rumored $ 50 Chromecast replacement. When in doubt, reduce the competition.

Recently, Fire TV has been in the headlines, which is missing. New streaming services HBO Max and NBCUniversal’s Peacock have been reducing gaps in Fire TV’s lineup for months due to a deadlock between the new app and Amazon. Both sides are drawing battle lines to control the data and money generated by your streaming activity, as they try to woo positions of power for the next era of TV. Fire TV users are stuck in the middle.

Thursday’s incident could put a stop to their deadlock. Less than a week later the incident comes to a halt when Rocco finds out his own solution, a similar deadlock with Mayur, putting all eyes on Amazon to see if it will look any better with Peacock or HBO Max and those services. For its Fire TV users.

Other Fire TV devices include the much less popular $ 120 Cube – a strange Alexa speaker / universal remote / streamer combo – that received a faster processor last year, and the Fire TV version TV. Televisions made by brands such as Toshiba and Insignia compete at the end of the budget, but Tips Clear reviews lack Roku TV. One can dream of a real Amazon-branded TV with great features like full-array local dimming or maybe an OLED like Europe last year, but the chances of them are slim.

– David Katzmire and Joan e. Solsman

Ero

If this is true in the rumors, there is a good chance that Amazon will introduce new versions of Eero Mesh routers that support Wi-Fi 6 supporting Wi-Fi 6. Amazon acquired the networking brand in early 2019, then moved quickly to release an updated and less expensive version of Ero’s system later that same year. But the lack of Wi-Fi 6 support was a notable omission. With an increasing percentage of Ero customers buying phones and other devices supporting the increasingly new standard, look to Amazon to close that gap and provide them with a router that is capable of keeping up.

Meanwhile, support for Wi-Fi 6E, which designs Wi-Fi 6 devices that are equipped to tap the mass of newly opened bandwidth in the 6GHz band, is less likely. Routers like those slated to start arriving in December will be priced as premium, high-end devices for power users, and positioning Amazon as an accessible, easy-to-use price pick in the trap category Is more interested in at least relative to routers like them. That said, a new and improved Eero Pro system supporting Wi-Fi 6E will not be an external shock.

The new Eero systems we see are not expected to double the Alexa speakers. Eero is enjoying privacy-contrast contrast with Google’s Nest Wifi, which includes built-in microphones for Google Assistant access. Amazon s also tell Tips Clear that no Ero device is expected to double as a bridge device for the Amazon sidewalk, at least not in 2020.

– Christ

ring

Amazon’s smart home company, Ring, sells a variety of smart home devices, including video doorbells, security cameras, a security system, and outdoor lighting fixtures. Recently, the brand has focused on providing cheaper hardware within the same product categories. The effort comes in the form of competitors such as Weise and B(owned by Amazon) who are offering top-performing smart home products at budget prices.

Of the ring Video doors From the $ 100 second-generation video doorbell to the $ 350 video doorbell elite, there is a flush-mount model with power over Ethernet capability. Its security camera lineup follows a similar pattern, starting with a $ 60 indoor cam and ending with a $ 250 Floodlight cam, an outdoor camera with built-in LED floodlights.

It has an array of smart lighting products on the outside including two LED bulbs as well as pathlight, steplight, spotlight and floodlight fixtures, some of which run on batteries and others via solar panels.

Given that the goal of the ring is to provide a literal “safety ring” around its home, from home security and lighting products to other peripheral devices designed to help the company track its home It is expected to continue expanding its offerings.

Ring is expected to continue to address privacy and security concerns related to its partnership with local law enforcement through neighboring legislation if two-factor authentication is required after customer data in December 2019 and the ring will also provide privacy The middle can deal with additional concerns. Advocates about its patent for facial recognition (currently not present on any ring devices) that will scan faces through a law enforcement database.

– Megan Wollerton